For several years, the Groupe’s major agencies or certain countries have set up Next Generation Boards (NGBs), enabling young talent to be involved in the operation of the entity and in the consultation and decision-making processes. In the vast majority of cases, these young employees are selected to sit on this advisory Board for one year. Their work schedule is specific to each country context, but all are involved in both internal (inclusion, culture, organization, etc.) and business (innovation, development) issues. These Next Gen Boards also make it possible to escalate the concerns of the teams to the Groupe’s General Management, and are an interesting avenue for internal dialog.
Social dialog is included in the Janus Code of Ethics. The aim is to foster staff/management exchanges and ensure freedom of expression for employees as a basic human right. With regard to the Groupe’s commitment to the UN Global Compact, and its adherence to the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention, the Groupe is committed to respecting freedom of association, freedom of expression, and the right to collective bargaining in the countries where it operates. Social dialog takes place at agency level. The average size of the Groupe’s agencies worldwide ranges between 120 and 160 employees, with the exception of a few large entities with a staff of over 1,000 people in the United States and India. Publicis Groupe remains very decentralized with operations in 100 or so countries. The aim in each entity is to promote direct, frequent discussions between managers and their teams regarding Company matters and current projects.
In France, the notion of collective agreement (which does not exist in this form in the communication industry in other countries) is a cornerstone of labor law. Agreements negotiated and signed previously are still in force, including the agreement relating to healthcare costs, including the responsible contract and to which an optional supplementary scheme has been added, as well as the collective bargaining agreement relating to the welfare plan. Negotiations with the union coordinators of the Publicis Groupe in France took place on Quality of Life at Work, and more specifically on the topics relating to remote working and the sustainable mobility package, which resulted in the signing of two agreements at the end of 2022. New discussions were opened to review the collective agreement on the right to disconnect, the objective being to define operating rules and terms of use of digital technologies to ensure everyone’s right to disconnect and ensure a balance between personal and professional life. All of these decisions are made in consultation with employee representatives, trade union coordinators and the Social and Economic Committees (CSEs).
The role of affinity Groupes (such as VivaWomen!, Égalité, enABLE and many others) or BRGs is important to lead to many changes in local policies benefiting all, in a very cooperative and constructive spirit.
The Groupe continued its commitment to Zero Tolerance of any form of harassment or discrimination within the Groupe, through training and awareness-raising programs for managers and HR/Talent teams. In this context, sexual harassment officers have been appointed by the CSEs; they received specific training, with regular reminder modules.
Some agencies have kept more specific systems dedicated to listening to employees, such as the “Bonnes Oreilles” at Publicis Conseil in France, where volunteer employees who are trained in listening ensure this relationship, or in the United Kingdom and the United States, where the Safe Conversations are organized by the agencies’ DEI teams, in particular following serious events such as racist or homophobic attacks, as in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Employees are regularly reminded through messages from the Secretary General that the Groupe’s ethics hotline ethicsconcerns@publicisgroupe.com is available for them to use worldwide.
Payroll and personnel expenses stood at euro 6,449 million in 2022. Trends are shown in Section 6.6, Note 4 of this document.
Compensation must respect the following three principles: 1) remain competitive and attractive locally and avoid disparities within the same market; 2) be in line with the Groupe’s practices, particularly in terms of gender equality and equity based on individual and collective performance in order to ensure fair and balanced compensation; 3) where appropriate, strengthen protective measures.
Gender pay equality: country by country “Job Grading” is applied in the new Human Resources Information System (HRIS) Groupe tool, allowing for uniform understanding of positions and functions. This project is led by the Secretary General, coordinated by the HR Operations Department, with support from the teams in charge of compensation (Compensation & Benefits) and the HR/CTOs of countries. The Groupe remains vigilant on gender equality issues and in the event of disparities, it is up to the local management of the agencies to remedy them.
